Happy Birthday Ronald Wilson Reagan

At the end of his two terms in office, Ronald Reagan viewed with satisfaction the achievements of his innovative program known as the Reagan Revolution, which aimed to reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon Government. He felt he had fulfilled his campaign pledge of 1980 to restore "the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism."

On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born to Nelle and John Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. He attended high school in nearby Dixon and then worked his way through Eureka College. There, he studied economics and sociology, played on the football team, and acted in school plays. Upon graduation, he became a radio sports announcer. A screen test in 1937 won him a contract in Hollywood. During the next two decades he appeared in 53 films.

From his first marriage to actress Jane Wyman, he had two children, Maureen and Michael. Maureen passed away in 2001. In 1952 he married Nancy Davis, who was also an actress, and they had two children, Patricia Ann and Ronald Prescott.

As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan became embroiled in disputes over the issue of Communism in the film industry; his political views shifted from liberal to conservative. He toured the country as a television host, becoming a spokesman for conservatism. In 1966 he was elected Governor of California by a margin of a million votes; he was re-elected in 1970.

Ronald Reagan won the Republican Presidential nomination in 1980 and chose as his running mate former Texas Congressman and United Nations Ambassador George Bush. Voters troubled by inflation and by the year-long confinement of Americans in Iran swept the Republican ticket into office. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter.

On January 20, 1981, Reagan took office. Only 69 days later he was shot by a would-be assassin, but quickly recovered and returned to duty. His grace and wit during the dangerous incident caused his popularity to soar.

Dealing skillfully with Congress, Reagan obtained legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. He embarked upon a course of cutting taxes and Government expenditures, refusing to deviate from it when the strengthening of defense forces led to a large deficit.

A renewal of national self-confidence by 1984 helped Reagan and Bush win a second term with an unprecedented number of electoral votes. Their victory turned away Democratic challengers Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro.

In 1986 Reagan obtained an overhaul of the income tax code, which eliminated many deductions and exempted millions of people with low incomes. At the end of his administration, the Nation was enjoying its longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression.

In foreign policy, Reagan sought to achieve "peace through strength." During his two terms he increased defense spending 35 percent, but sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union. In dramatic meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he negotiated a treaty that would eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Reagan declared war against international terrorism, sending American bombers against Libya after evidence came out that Libya was involved in an attack on American soldiers in a West Berlin nightclub.

By ordering naval escorts in the Persian Gulf, he maintained the free flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war. In keeping with the Reagan Doctrine, he gave support to anti-Communist insurgencies in Central America, Asia, and Africa.

Overall, the Reagan years saw a restoration of prosperity, and the goal of peace through strength seemed to be within grasp.

"May God bless and keep the greatest President in my lifetime! Without a doubt, we can thank President Reagan that this nation isn't now a part of the Soviet empire."

President Reagan made his appearance on the political stage on October 27, 1964. I feel privileged to have witnessed it at the time. The Great Society was still a pipe-dream on the drawing board of wishful thinking instead of the nightmare that threatens to fulfill Plutarch's warning, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." Polling data was showing that Barry Goldwater was going to lose the election to Lyndon Johnson by a wide margin. Goldwater paid for TV network time for a nationwide broadcast as part of a last ditch effort to save the election. Ronald Reagan wrote and delivered the speech.

A Time for Choosing is the most important political speech since the Gettysburg Address. Although Goldwater was actually the candidate, you would not recognize it from the speech. In that speech, President Reagan picked up the torch that carries the sacred fire of liberty with these words, "We have come to a time for choosing; we will preserve for our children this the last best hope for man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.....history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening."America was at a cross roads, one path led to another Dark Ages and the other road to freedom.

President Reagan went on to identify two enemies that must be defeated in order for America to remain on the path to freedom. The first enemy of freedom that he identified was our own too large and still growing government:

"I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course...No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden that reached a third of its national income. Today, 37 cents out of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collector's share, and yet our government continues to spend 17 million dollars a day more than the government takes in. We haven't balanced our budget 28 out of the last 34 years. We've raised our debt limit three times in the last twelve months, and now our national debt is one and a half times bigger than all the combined debts of all the nations of the world...Well I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers."

"Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth."

"And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."

It has been just over 40 years since President Reagan picked up the torch that bears the sacred fire of freedom. Americans now spend more to support their government, than all their other living expenses including medical care, transportation, food, clothing, and shelter combined. That "17 million dollars a day" of which President Reagan complained, has now mushroomed into a billion dollars a day. Who among you has considered the possibility that our government is threatening to finally and forever escape its Constitutional restraints allowing it to become a government of the people instead of the republic that was a government for the people?

After he became President, and without firing a single shot, Ronald Reagan single handedly defeated the second enemy of freedom that he had identified on that memorable night in 1964. The socialistic Soviet Empire is now on the ash-heap of history as President Reagan had promised. Being honest and looking in the mirror, has our own government become its socialistic replacement? History is unambiguous; the government of any nation poses the greatest threat to its own people. Is ours any different? Have we drifted so far from our Constitutional roots that instead of being the defender of our freedoms as the Founders intended, government has become the instrument that plans our lives around the "common good" instead of We as individuals deciding what is in our own best interests and in the best interests of our own families?

There was a time when history repeated because people had less opportunity to know the mistakes of the past, let alone learn from them. If history repeats again, it will either be because We did not exercise our option to choose or We are going to make the wrong choice. History is unambiguous, and just as Plutarch warned, all demcracies end in bankruptcy or hyperinflation whenever the people learn to vote themselves benefits.

I would suggest to each and every American that the United States is still standing at that cross roads that President Reagan identified in 1964, but that less than a decade from now, existing law is going to take away our remaining choices. Today, in 2006, there is still time to choose freedom. We still have the power to choose because President Reagan succeeded in preserving your power to make the right choice, but only for a period of time. The United States made the wrong turn in that fateful 1964 election, leaving what is now roughly a decade in which we can correct our mistake.

Every February 6, even from the grave, President Reagan is still reaching out to us and asking us to choose. The ability to choose is the essence of freedom. "We have come to a time for choosing; we will preserve for our children this the last best hope for man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness." Like the sand in an hour glass, the last grains of our freedom are running out. When the boomers stop paying taxes and demand their "benefits", the Time for Choosing will have run out.

Ronald Reagan's Farewell Letter To The Nation

Following is the text of former President Reagan's letter to America
announcing that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease:

My Fellow Americans,

I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.

Upon learning this news, Nancy and I had to decide whether as private citizens we would keep this a private matter or whether we would make this news known in a public way.

In the past Nancy suffered from breast cancer and I had my cancer surgeries. We found through our open disclosures we were able to raise public awareness. We are happy that as a result many more people underwent testing.

They were treated in early stages and able to return to normal, healthy lives.

So now, we feel it is important to share it with you. In opening our hearts, we hope this might promote greater awareness of this condition. Perhaps it will encourage a clearer understanding of the individuals and families who are affected by it.

At the moment I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this earth doing the things I have always done. I will continue to share life's journey with my beloved Nancy and my family. I plan to enjoy the great outdoors and stay in touch with my friends and supporters.

Unfortunately, as Alzheimer's disease progresses, the family often bears a heavy burden. I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience. When the time comes I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage.

In closing let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your President. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future.

I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright new dawn ahead.

Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.

Sincerely,

Ronald Reagan

Somewhere in heaven Ronald Reagan is smiling.

I miss you so much Mr. President.

Happy Birthday!

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